CFZ Excited about this defense

[Mac_MaloneV1]

The additions of Fehoko, Gilmore and Mazi won't make a difference on Game day???

Bland, Williams, Mukuamu, Clark getting better also.

Schematically

 

[quickccc]

Last year, we had one of the NFL's top defenses despite two glaring weaknesses: left cornerback and run-stuffing defensive tackle.

One of those weaknesses (LCB) got even weaker when Anthony Brown was lost to injury. Brown wasn't great, but with Jourdan Lewis out with injury, we didn't have enough players able to step up and either take the outside CB position or the slot CB position. DaRon Bland proved to be a find, but looked better in the slot than outside. Experimenting with Israel Mukuamu in the slot when we had to play Bland outside showed some promise in the playoffs.

Dallas addressed this weakness by trading a fifth-round draft pick for Stephon Gilmore. Gilmore didn't cost much because he's fairly old, but his play was rejuvenated last year. He was one of Indianapolis' top defenders last year. Pairing Gilmore with Diggs and Bland should make our secondary tough to beat this year. There are still some depth questions, but with Lewis set to return and Mukuamu having shown he can play the slot if needed, there's at least a little leeway this year. Brown played about as well as we could expect for a backup having to start because our second-rounder (Kelvin Joseph) has been a bust, but too many times it seemed like, offenses were able to burn him with a deep pass or two. Gilmore, even at this point in his career, should be a huge upgrade to Brown.

To give Dallas some backhanded credit, the Cowboys did trade for Jonathan Hankins when they continued to struggle stopping the run last season. Of course, most fans have been shouting for them to seriously address defensive tackle for years. They did it in the draft, taking a run stuffer they hope can turn into more than that. But if Mazi Smith is only a run stuffer, it still would fix one of our few weaknesses on defense. Dallas improved in that area after acquiring Hankins, and re-signed him, so pairing him with Smith should make the interior tough to run against. That should put offenses in more long-yardage situations and allow the pass rushers to feed.

It's hard to say at this point that the defense will be elite. My opinion is that won't happen until we get a defensive tackle who can consistently collapse the pocket. Mazi may turn into that player but it wouldn't be fair to expect that his rookie year. Odighizuwa and Golston provide some interior pressure, and Fehoko might can add to that. But for right now, better coverage and interior run-stopping is probably what we should expect, and what should make this defense even better than it was.

- They did address DT in the NFL draft before (ala Trysten Hill) They Just did not do so in the first round.

- The number goal is Stop The Run. That is what hindered this defense the most much of the year, Hankins trade helped tremendously, but it cannot evolve around one man.
Now we have two men. per Massi Smith, who was touted as best run stuffing DT in the NFL draft.
Now we should have two Hankins to bolster the defense.

- I'm not sold on the LBs yet. We have ton of inexperience there in youthful Clark and Overshown. And LVE clearly has durability issues. clear history past f injuries.
At his best, he's serviceable but if he's injured, we'd have to count on young bucks or safety/hybrid roles to compensate... No vet backups.
Cox seems useless. If they believed in him, he'd play. Harper's achilles tendon makes it a tough recovery road back, he's still rookie by inexperience and he was just a special teams tool.
Club will look very long at youngees in camp, and an option could decide on a very cheap street vet LB.. if needed near camp's end. (ala Barr last year)

- Gilmore will be supported by a much better surrounding cast than what's he had in Carolina and Indy. We tried to go after him vs Indy, and we paid the price.
Should be significantly better than what we had in Anthony Brown. Teams will try Gilmore too, and he'll make them pay the price.
Izzy's flex skills helps depth at both S and CB., he could well be the 3rd outside CB if injury to Diggs or Gilmore. Lewis strictly a slot guy.

 

[gimmesix]

- They did address DT in the NFL draft before (ala Trysten Hill) They Just did not do so in the first round.

We've been trying to fix the position with non-first-round picks for a long, long time. Hill was clearly a mistake where they saw first-round skills in a player who had not lived up to those measurables.

Of course, some say that about Mazi, and there is some truth to that concerning pass rush potential. The numbers aren't there to support that his athletic ability will translate into him being the kind of truly disruptive DT that we need. However, the good thing about Mazi (as you say) is that his floor is being a really, really good run defender (while Hill's floor was being a bench warmer/rotational player like he was in college). That alone should improve the defense because if we can stuff the run and force teams to pass, that plays to the strength of this defense both in its ability to get after the QB with Parsons and co. and supposed improved coverage with Gilmore added.

 

[quickccc]

If Mazi can play this Cowboys defense has no weaknesses. I have never seen a Cowboys defense that seems to have all their positions locked with few questions. 4 solid corners, LVE is a good middle linebacker, 3 good safeties, Parsons and Tank. Good young role players that could break out as well. Top 5 defense.

Some (like me) maybe looking it " on paper" as the art and typing is looking nice.

But we had backup type QBs that had this defense (ala Philly, Washington and Houston)
Having Gilmore this year should certainly change that.

But we need to see "on the field" if we can "out-physical " opposing offenses, and if misdirection and no huddle offenses no longer pose threats to us.

 

[baltcowboy]

Some (like me) maybe looking it " on paper" as the art and typing is looking nice.

But we had backup type QBs that had this defense (ala Philly, Washington and Houston)
Having Gilmore this year should certainly change that.

But we need to see "on the field" if we can "out-physical " opposing offenses, and if misdirection and no huddle offenses no longer pose threats to us.

Philly has probably the best offensive talent in the league, Our offense was the issue against Washington (look at the stats) and Houston ran about a Billion trick plays. Measure the Cowboys defense on the playoffs. The defense was devastating. Then you add the Gilmore trade and draft picks.

 

[gimmesix]

- I'm not sold on the LBs yet. We have ton of inexperience there in youthful Clark and Overshown. And LVE clearly has durability issues. clear history past f injuries.
At his best, he's serviceable but if he's injured, we'd have to count on young bucks or safety/hybrid roles to compensate... No vet backups.
Cox seems useless. If they believed in him, he'd play. Harper's achilles tendon makes it a tough recovery road back, he's still rookie by inexperience and he was just a special teams tool.
Club will look very long at youngees in camp, and an option could decide on a very cheap street vet LB.. if needed near camp's end. (ala Barr last year)

There are some questions. I feel like LVE really got the defense figured out last year and played at a pretty high level, but I agree that durability is a concern. Of course, we will have Parsons at linebacker part of the time, so that shouldn't be forgotten. And I feel good about what Clark showed last year. We do need to see progress from him now that he's been in the system for a year.

I agree that depth may be an issue. I don't really expect much from rookies taken in the third round on. There are usually some areas they need to work on and it may take a year or more for them to get there. Overshown might just be a special-teammer this year.

Harper and Cox definitely have question marks. I'm hoping that this is the year it clicks for Cox. He has shown that he has the skills for the game when we've seen him on the field, but he may just be one of those players that it takes a while to click for mentally. I'm not counting on Malik Jefferson to be more than a body and I don't know if we see players like Takk McKinley, Isaiah Land, Tyrus Wheat and Durell Washington as linebackers or DEs, but don't think we can count on any of them even though some are intriguing.

I feel good about the top three (and we brought in Barr last year because we didn't feel good about the top three because of whatever the issues are with Cox — and Clark was starting off his rookie year on injury recovery). But if we do have an injury to one of the top three, then we need to see someone step up or go get some help. Of course, we're talking about depth, with is important but not what our hopes of being a top defense are based on. No team is two-deep with starter-quality players are every position.

 

[quickccc]

We've been trying to fix the position with non-first-round picks for a long, long time. Hill was clearly a mistake where they saw first-round skills in a player who had not lived up to those measurables.

Of course, some say that about Mazi, and there is some truth to that concerning pass rush potential. The numbers aren't there to support that his athletic ability will translate into him being the kind of truly disruptive DT that we need. However, the good thing about Mazi (as you say) is that his floor is being a really, really good run defender (while Hill's floor was being a bench warmer/rotational player like he was in college). That alone should improve the defense because if we can stuff the run and force teams to pass, that plays to the strength of this defense both in its ability to get after the QB with Parsons and co. and supposed improved coverage with Gilmore added.

Truth be told. We dunno what is gonna be the outcome of Massi either.
Its been a number of first round pick busts at DT around the NFL. We can only hope and cross fingers that Massi makes an impact.
DTs are not only such a very difficult position to find, league wide most 1st round DTs draftees don't even pan out.

Hill's game tape showed a great get off and agility. But we never really know about a player's passion for football.
David Irvin had the skill set and ability to be a potential Pro Bowler, if he had set his mind to it, but he did not have a love for football.
He saw football as simply a Tuesday paycheck. Not to the drive to be one of the better DTs in the NFL.

And what about our current DTs ? Gallimore dominated Senior Bowl practices and had wow pre-draft workouts but he's now in the dog house.
Osa flashes rush ability on occasions, but he's showing more rotation types that we've many of in the past.
Ditto with Golston.

 

[blueblood70]

The defense last year could of carried us to a SB by themselves and did everything they could to get us to a NFC champ game, any other starting QB in the league plays that game we probably are in the NFC champ. The defense this year is even better.

try again.


any other so any of the other 31 and we are in??? lmao

some of you cant help yourselves but Daks top 10 but the OL and run game and OC aided in that loss. period end of story., and that top d, while great, also had diggs not make play on kittles or why was an DL chasing Kittles that far down field, whose play was that why was that coverage called?? or that INT that hit him in the hands. sorry but dak dint pay well for good reason ie INT1 Gallup gets pushed off his route and undercut making no effort to go back for the ball but the DB ran the route for him. Odd, a DB is better at reading and runnig a route. Dalton makes 2 boneheaded mental mistakes , again OL cant open hole, gets stood up and or pushed back all game Ceedee only player making plays.. sure all dak..31 starters were better options. come on , what a clueless statement like those on sm still thinking Rush wins that game! with NO RUN GAME bad play calling and the of the best DL.f7 inthe league with no OL to speak of..right..

 

[quickccc]

There are some questions. I feel like LVE really got the defense figured out last year and played at a pretty high level, but I agree that durability is a concern. Of course, we will have Parsons at linebacker part of the time, so that shouldn't be forgotten. And I feel good about what Clark showed last year. We do need to see progress from him now that he's been in the system for a year.

I agree that depth may be an issue. I don't really expect much from rookies taken in the third round on. There are usually some areas they need to work on and it may take a year or more for them to get there. Overshown might just be a special-teammer this year.

Harper and Cox definitely have question marks. I'm hoping that this is the year it clicks for Cox. He has shown that he has the skills for the game when we've seen him on the field, but he may just be one of those players that it takes a while to click for mentally. I'm not counting on Malik Jefferson to be more than a body and I don't know if we see players like Takk McKinley, Isaiah Land, Tyrus Wheat and Durell Washington as linebackers or DEs, but don't think we can count on any of them even though some are intriguing.

I feel good about the top three (and we brought in Barr last year because we didn't feel good about the top three because of whatever the issues are with Cox — and Clark was starting off his rookie year on injury recovery). But if we do have an injury to one of the top three, then we need to see someone step up or go get some help. Of course, we're talking about depth, with is important but not what our hopes of being a top defense are based on. No team is two-deep with starter-quality players are every position.

I can see Takk and Jefferson being on the practice squad ...again.
I've not seen one team projection that has either player on it's 53 man projection.
Unless they suddenly become stunningly summer pleasant surprises, I don't see them making it either.

 

[gimmesix]

Truth be told. We dunno what is gonna be the outcome of Massi either.
Its been a number of first round pick busts at DT around the NFL. We can only hope and cross fingers that Massi makes an impact.
DTs are not only such a very difficult position to find, league wide most 1st round DTs draftees don't even pan out.

Hill's game tape showed a great get off and agility. But we never really know about a player's passion for football.
David Irvin had the skill set and ability to be a potential Pro Bowler, if he had set his mind to it, but he did not have a love for football.
He saw football as simply a Tuesday paycheck. Not to the drive to be one of the better DTs in the NFL.

And what about our current DTs ? Gallimore dominated Senior Bowl practices and had wow pre-draft workouts but he's now in the dog house.
Osa flashes rush ability on occasions, but he's showing more rotation types that we've many of in the past.
Ditto with Golston.

Mazi certainly could bust, but I believe the chances of it happening are fairly low. The reason for that is that he appears to be a safe bet as a run-stopping NT. He may not be more than that, but that seems to be pretty much guaranteed. (It's a little like our second-round TE ... Dallas seems to have picked players with few doubts about being able to do one thing really well, such as Schoonmaker being a solid blocker.)

With Hill, there were no safe bets. Now, with Masi, the question is whether he will just be a road block or more than that. The problem with drafting Hill, Gallimore, Odig, Golston, Bohanna, etc., is that there are reasons those players were not first-round picks. Sure, first-round picks bust, but they are taken in the first round because there are fewer holes or questions about them. We've been trying to find that star-quality 3-tech for years using mostly third-round picks (other than the chance we took with Hill). You've got to get real lucky when you are doing that.

 

[gimmesix]

I can see Takk and Jefferson being on the practice squad ...again.
I've not seen one team projection that has either player on it's 53 man projection.
Unless they suddenly become stunningly summer pleasant surprises, I don't see them making it either.

I do think that's their best shot at having a spot on this team. We've got multiple rushers ahead of McKinley and the younger 'backers need to just show promise (and special teams skills) to be ahead of Jefferson. Don't mind the team trying to see if they can squeeze out whatever talent those two possess, but if we haven't really seen it at this point in their careers, we're probably not going to and need to go with potential for those backup roster spots.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

- The number goal is Stop The Run. That is what hindered this defense the most much of the year, Hankins trade helped tremendously, but it cannot evolve around one man.
Now we have two men. per Massi Smith, who was touted as best run stuffing DT in the NFL draft.
Now we should have two Hankins to bolster the defense.

The number one goal for modern NFL defenses is to stop the pass.

I would love someone to give some statistics on how the run defense was so prohibitive in a way that mattered. They were 4th in run defense EPA.

Their worst performances by ypc were Chicago (6.9), Indy (6.5) and NYG (week 3, 5.9). They controlled all 3 of those games. Their average ypc allowed in losses, including playoffs, was 3.98.

I do not, at all, understand the obsession with run defense.

 

[charron]

This should be a fun year to watch the defense.

 

[CowboyFrog]

The number one goal for modern NFL defenses is to stop the pass.

I would love someone to give some statistics on how the run defense was so prohibitive in a way that mattered. They were 4th in run defense EPA.

Their worst performances by ypc were Chicago (6.9), Indy (6.5) and NYG (week 3, 5.9). They controlled all 3 of those games. Their average ypc allowed in losses, including playoffs, was 3.98.

I do not, at all, understand the obsession with run defense.

Its not so much that running teams run us over, its the fact that when they can gain 4 yards consitantly we can not get them in obvious passing downs and come after them with a strong pass rush.... Again if you make Philly's play action a non factor that offense will struggle big time. That starts with stopping thier run game.

 

[KJJ]

Our secondary was depleted in those later games, and in jax our starting lb and de were out.

At least in JAX they forced fumble with a minute left for the offense to do one thing, yet KM/Dak 3 str8 dirt passes to give jax plenty of time to get a fg to tie it. GB game started off good, but was overall terrible. Philly was also a disaster saved by Dak.

i think Parsons was fighting through injury or multiple ones later in the season, and even tho his sacks were down, he was still breathing on QBs and forcing false starts left and right, sometimes sacks arent everything.

Despite the injuries we still built a 17 point lead on Jacksonville in the third quarter. Parsons was clearly finding some injuries last season. Hopefully the additions we made in the draft will take some pressure off him. If Smith pans out he should help free up others to the QB.

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

Its not so much that running teams run us over, its the fact that when they can gain 4 yards consitantly we can not get them in obvious passing downs and come after them with a strong pass rush.... Again if you make Philly's play action a non factor that offense will struggle big time. That starts with stopping thier run game.

But where is the actual data to show that this happens? Dallas' rush EPA on first downs was 4th.

There is no data to suggest that successful running is required for play action to work.

 

[Calvin2Tony2Emmitt2Julius]

Did you ever hear of roughing the kicker, lol

Yup, that never happens. My daughter I'd be pissed!

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

Despite the injuries we still built a 17 point lead on Jacksonville in the third quarter. Parsons was clearly finding some injuries last season. Hopefully the additions we made in the draft will take some pressure off him. If Smith pans out he should help free up others to the QB.

It's not like the DL had any problems getting to Lawrence.

They had some trouble finishing sacks, but the bigger issue was that they couldn't cover anybody.

 

[CowboyFrog]

But where is the actual data to show that this happens? Dallas' rush EPA on first downs was 4th.

There is no data to suggest that successful running is required for play action to work.

in GB we could not lock down thier run game in the second half which led to 2 and shorts which led to big plays in the passing game..again I think the problem we had was closing out some teams as they could run on us down the stretch, certainly we were not horrrible at anything on defense last year BUT if you can make them one deminsional with this pass rush it curtains for sure...like we were doing early in the seson and it led to many turnovers

 

[KJJ]

It's not like the DL had any problems getting to Lawrence.

They had some trouble finishing sacks, but the bigger issue was that they couldn't cover anybody.

Our pass rush wasn’t what it had been earlier in the season. We only sacked Lawrence once. He was able to avoid pressure and make plays. We had all the momentum just like in the Green Bay game and our defense let us down. The Cowboys continue to lack a killer instinct.